Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-15
Important Utterances Of the Ex-Pres-
dent Of the ConiedaraCy on Mat
tars Pertaining to the War.
Mcclellan and Heade the two Best Fed
eTal Generals, While 4. S Johnston
Had No Peer On Either Side,
Reason Should Be Substituted for Passion
A Few Northern Extremists the
Only Disturbing Element.
ATTEMprED ASSASSINATION.

ton GIVING al SCCOuuI Oi ICCtEt IHpVAl-
ant interviews with Jefferson Davis.
In these interviews Mr.. Davis, among
other things, charges that the Federal
government conspired during the late
war 20 have him assassinsted. On this
subject, Mr.. Davis says: While the Con-
IfederRte govern meIt was at MOntgOm
| cry, Ala, III 1861, received on anuny-
nous letter from Philadelphia the sub
stance Of which was that the Governor Of
| PENNSYLVANIA had released 6 noted des-
perado from the psritentiGry, upon the
demolition that be would 60 to MOntgcm-
cry and &ssassiGate me, with the promise
! Of O reward Of Sl0J, 600 il he succeeded.
That after his release the man stated he
jcOulG not probably succeed alone, and
gave the name Of another convict OF
CHARACTER LIKE his OWN,
with whose assistance he felt sure Of sue
cess, and that : second convict was re-
leased to accompany the first. Dir. Davis
then gave, with much circums:antiality
taa details CT various attempts on Ms
1 lie. Once he discovered Z man watching
him behind brick wall surrounding his
(Davis') residence and followed him.
The man ran and apparently escaped
through the bsTn, and, as Er. Davis be-
hcYes, with the connivanCe OF COlored
servant. While riding out to visit the
defensive work around Richmond, ac-
companied by Colonel William Preston
Johnston, pistol ball, evidently intend
ed for Cuisines" passed
JUST BELOW THEM.
This shot came from an apparently vacant
house. ArsubSequent &c .rch revealed al
armed man under the floor. lie was sent
10 General Lee by Mr. Davis orders
with an explanatory Ecte, and the hope
tina, Gle would be put in the front line TO
stop ball intended for better man"
On another occasion, in tGe suburbs Of
Il chmOnd q shot was fired Gt the Presi-
dent OF the ConfedsrGCy from behind
htgn wall. Mr.. Davis continues: There
were many reasons before the Dshl-
green raid for believing that efforts in
consistent with the rules Of war as prec-
tiCed by civilized nations were
made to insure assassinatiOns,
especially Of the President, and to
acquire information by spies, resident
end transitory, and that large rewards
were offered for such services, including
arson and murder. On one occasion
Wnen I was known to be travelling on the
railroad TO the aTmy, information was
brought by q lady who had overheard
A CONVERSATION IN BARN
that distractions were 10 be placed on
the track, and the information was YER
flied by detachment sent, who found
the distractions and some United States
soldiers seCreted in s barn near the place
where the train was expected TO be
wrecked.
Mr., Davis gives his motives and pOlit-
ical status in 1861, and claims he never was
6 disunionist, but that northern senators
rejected at that time every proposition
that promised pGCihCstlOn. He refers TO
2. F. Butler voting for him fity-seYen
times st Charleston, S. c., IN 1860, as the
candidate for the Democratic party for
President to prevent disunion, and ne
declares he did not desire to be President
of the COHfederEcy, but took prompt, and
G. he thought, adequate meaGs TO pre-
vent it.
After his election and Inauguration st
Montgomery, al his efforts were direc-
ted towards securing for the Sc
Ceding states peaceful Sepa-
ration, though he never thought
OF going back into the Union 70 escape
last resort to the arbitrsment OF arms.
Mr. Davis discussed his experience as
SecreteTy Of War in Mr.. Pierce's Cabinet
and es United States Senator from Mis-
sissippi, his career es President OF the
Southern COlfederacy, and is eloquent in
bis praise Of Generals Albert Sidney
Johnston, Lee, Jackson, ard a. z. Hin.
He says A. S. Johnston lad no peer on
either side during the wsr, if he ever had
in American history, and his loss to the
Conf5deracy YVES iIreparROle. Lee was
his associate and friend ct West Point
With LeoDidas Polk and John 3. Msgru-
der, and there was ausht bnt
HARMONY BETWEEN THEM.
Speaking Of the seven days battle
around Richmond, Nr. Davis says Gen
eral Lee conceived and executed the des-
perate plau to turn the flank and rear of
McClellan's army, and added that the
failure to arnihilate the federal army
Wss due chiefly to the fact that Lee had
no maps Of the country below Richmond,
and that his army moved IL ignorance OF
the country and with guides who
for the most part proved themselves
utterly inefficient. He says that
Lees object IN the retreat from
Petersburg in the last dsys of the war
was 10 resCh Danville and then unite with
Johnson and crush Sherman before Grant
could Join him. He declares that McClel-
Ian and Meade were the two best federal
generals, and if the former had been per-
mitted to carry out his campaigns
against Richmond as ne had planned il,
a1d had received the hearty support of
the Federal Wsr Department, il would
have resulted
DIsAsTROUsLY TO THE CoNFEDERATEs.
Speaking of Stonewall Jackson,
he said that had he not fallen
at Charlottesville the federal
army Of the Potomac would have
disappeared into history under circum-
stances far different from those which
marked its dissolution TWO years later.
Mr.. Davis and his family are warm in
their praise of the late John W. Garrett
and confirms CARROTS statement made
before his death Of how he secured Mr..
Davis release from Imprisonment at
Fortress Monroe. The story in brief YVES
that while Mr.. Davis was confined in
Fortress Monroe Mrs. Davis called on
Mr.. Garrett in Baltimore and represented
to him that her husband would
die unless speedily released,
that MIR. Garrett went to Washing
ton and succeeded in overcoming
Secretary Stanton's violent opposition to
the release, and that on the securing of
Horace Greeley's name te|the bond, Mr..
Davis liberation followed. Mr, De-
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